photo credit:Jacqs3280

As many of you know, this is the weekend for North Carolina’s Cash for Appliance rebate program.  I don’t need to reiterate my objections to the recent series of “clunker” giveaways, but I’ll let Adrienne from Home Performance NC sum up one of the social costs:

The only thing I’m not thrilled about in the appliance rebate is that to get the rebate we have to turn in our old washer. I know the point is to get the old “clunkers” off the street, but our washer (a Maytag) has been problem-free for 16 years. I bet a family that couldn’t afford a brand-new washer would get a lot of use out of it. And if they hung their clothes on the line instead of using a dryer, it really wouldn’t impact energy use that much. I would love to donate the washer to our local Habitat for Humanity Home Store instead of sending it off to be destroyed…

Indeed. People, planet, profit.  One out of three isn’t bad anything new.

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